CBS News
Bethany Beach firefly could be first lightning bug added to federal endangered species list
The Bethany Beach firefly is in danger of flickering out and becoming endangered, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said Monday.
The firefly, found in coastal Delaware, Maryland and Virginia, is one of around 170 firefly species in the U.S. The species is already considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Fish and Wildlife Service said it’s under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act.
It’s the first firefly species to be considered for protections under the act, according to a Fish and Wildlife Service spokesperson. If the species is listed, then federal agencies will be required to ensure their actions are unlikely to jeopardize the Bethany Beach firefly.
There are currently more than 1,300 species listed as either endangered or threatened in the U.S. under the 1973 act.
The Bethany Beach firefly is not the only type of firefly at risk; about 10% of the firefly species in the U.S. are not doing well, Sara Lewis, author of “Silent Sparks: The Wondrous World of Fireflies,” told CBS News earlier this year. Some of the lightning bug species most vulnerable to extinction need very specific habitats to survive.
The Bethany Beach firefly, for instance, lives only in swales — low-lying freshwater marsh areas near coastal dunes, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. Climate change is affecting the firefly habitat and around 76-95% of swales could be lost to high-tide flooding by 2100, according to climate models.
The firefly species also faces threats from development, light pollution, recreation, grazing by ponies, the use of pesticides and invasive plant species.
Light pollution is a threat for a variety of fireflies because it can prevent male and female fireflies from finding each other so they can mate, reducing the population of the future generations of fireflies.
“Love can be hard to find for even the brightest of fireflies,” according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. “Even the interfering light of a full moon can outshine their visual morse code, making it impossible for males and females to recognize each other. Light pollution from towns, factories and roads have been seriously killing the buzz for these insects”
Candace Fallon, senior conservation biologist at the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, advises being conscientious of fireflies when taking care of lawns. She previously told CBS News that she suggests mowing less often or leaving the grass taller as a way to protect fireflies.
The advice applies year round, not just in the spring and summer when flashes of light are visible.
“So many just people just think about fireflies when they’re these flashing adults for a few weeks in the summer, but the reality is that they’re present all year long, we’re just not noticing them or seeing them,” Fallon said.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Watch CBS News
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.
Former President Donald Trump on Tuesday night for the first time said he would veto a federal abortion ban, a position he has shied away from declaring and is likely to upset his anti-abortion supporters.
In the middle of the vice presidential debate, Trump posted to social media that “everyone knows that I would not support a federal abortion ban, under any circumstances, and would, in fact, veto it, because it is up to the states to decide based on the will of their voters (the will of the people!)”
Trump had not previously said if he would veto a national ban. His running mate, Sen. JD Vance, said in August that the former president would veto a national abortion ban, but Trump said during the Sept. 10 debate with Vice President Kamala Harris, “I didn’t discuss it with JD.”
During that same debate, Harris said, “Understand, if Donald Trump were to be reelected, he will sign a national abortion ban.”
Trump responded that was a “lie” and he’s “not signing a ban, and there’s no reason to sign a ban because we’ve gotten what everybody wanted.”
Jim Vondruska / Getty Images
Democrats have tried to tie Trump to the abortion restrictions enacted in 22 states since Roe v. Wade was reversed, as well as to the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 initiative. Project 2025 says “the next conservative President should work with Congress to enact the most robust protections for the unborn that Congress will support while deploying existing federal powers to protect innocent life and vigorously complying with statutory bans on the federal funding of abortion.”
Trump had boasted about putting three conservative justices on the Supreme Court who were crucial to overturning Roe v. Wade. In August, Trump said he will vote against a proposed constitutional amendment in Florida which would undo the state’s six-week abortion ban. However, just days prior to that, he had said in an interview that six weeks “is too short.”
“There has to be more time,” he said at the time. “I am going to be voting that we need more than six weeks.”
He has insisted that giving states’ the authority to make abortion law is what people wanted.
In Tuesday’s debate, Vance said he never supported a national ban, although he said when running for Senate in 2022 that he “certainly would like abortion to be illegal nationally.” Vance also disputed the moderators’ calling a federal 15-week restriction a “ban,” saying he supported a “minimum national standard.”
Trump’s post Tuesday also falsely claimed that Democrats support late-term abortions and the “execution” of babies after they are born, a false claim he has repeated on the campaign trail.
contributed to this report.
